April 17-22, 2012
These days were spent wandering around La Pas and lounging on the boat.
April 23, 2012
Today I was off again. Up at 6:45 so that I could be ashore by 7:30
in order to make the ½ hour walk to the Port Captain’s office for 8:00
to pick up my departure papers. The office was actually open by 8:10
so I was out by 8:15 with my papers. Back to the marina by 8:45 for a
shower and breakfast. I had actually hauled anchor and was motoring
out the 4.5 mile channel by 10:15. This was good because high tide
was at 11:50 so if I had trouble with any of the bars on the way out I
would have still had a chance of floating free at high tide. It is
always interesting how, as one leaves a port, that you looked so hard to
find your way into, how simple it seems now. Oh well it should be a
snap next time. As the speed of the boat and the wind speed were
identical and the wind direction indicator showed the wind right on
the nose I motored. The wind later shifted 30 degrees off the nose and
registered 7 knots so I ran up the main and tried sailing. When the
best I could get was 1.5 knots no matter how I approached this wind, I
went back to motor sailing. At least by doing this I could maintain
5.5 knots on this flat sea at 2000 RPMs. At this speed I can
stretch close to three hours out of a gallon of fuel with my little
3GM30F Yanmar. And that is about how long it took me to reach
Ensenada de la Raza which is a small bay on Isla Espiritu Santo. The
bay is very well protected by the high cliffs around it and Isla Gallo
(Rooster Island), from every direction but on the south. Any bets on
which direction the wind will come out of tonight? This is a
beautiful bay. The water is an emerald green because of the white
sand below it with a white sand beach at the head of the bay. The bay
is surrounded by sandstone cliffs. Many birds have dug into these
cliffs to make nests. There is a sea turtle that keeps circling the
boat and sticking his head out of the water to look at me. It is very
hot in this bay because of the high cliffs surrounding it. The down
side is that there are many tiny flies. They don’t bite but they do
irritate one. I don’t know for sure but I would guess that they are
the Bobos that people talk about around here. I won’t be cooking
diner until later with this heat. This is a time for sitting beside a
Dodo coil and drinking beer. I sent Deanna a spot message to let her
know where I am but there is no Banda Ancha signal here for email. I
will try my cell phone later on.
Well no luck with contacting Deanna. No cell phone coverage either.
Earlier when I thought that there was a sea turtle swimming around the
boat I was wrong. There are dozens of sea turtles everywhere in this
bay. So it wasn’t just one turtle swimming around the boat it was
many different turtles.
I have never seen the sea as alive as I see it tonight. First of all
it is absolutely flat which does make me a little nervous. And when I
sit in the cockpit, the water is alive with sea life. Something was knocking
the dingy back and forth so I decided to hoist it out of the water.
When I turned on the deck light there were schools of fish shooting
back and forth just below the surface. As I reached into the water to
attach the hoisting lines to the dingy I watched hundreds of fish
swimming around my hand. The sea was actually frothing with life.
April 24, 2012
Well the sea stayed relatively calm last night, but the boat was rolling a
bit this morning ..really nothing to speak of. I was able to make coffee
and eggs with no problem. I had the anchor up and was gone shortly
after 8:00. The down side to the calm night was that there was also
no wind to sail with this morning. I hoisted the main, mostly because
it made me feel better, and motored for 4 hours over a very flat sea
to Isla San Francisco. There is a very pretty crescent shaped bay on
the south side of the island. When I arrived there were boats
anchored all along the beach. The sailing guide suggested anchoring
at the northwest end of the beach. This spot was open so I took it.
Since then the boats in the middle left and most of the new arrivals
have crowded into the bay at the other end of the beach. Once again I
wonder what they know about this bay that I and the person that wrote
the guide don’t. Oh well. The bay again has a white sand bottom and
very clear water. I could watch the anchor chain dropping onto the
sea floor 25 ft. below.
I sent Deanna another spot message to let her
know that I am here. Again no Banda Ancha or cell reception. I
figure that in the morning I’ll pack my laptop and cell phone into the
backpack, row into shore and climb to the top of one of the big hills
around the bay to see if I can get a signal from there. I don’t have
much hope but I’ll give it a try. This is a very remote area for cell
towers. But I am suprised how many boats that I have seen along the
mainland are here. I rowed into shore today and walked across the
island to the bay directly across from here and there were 7 boats
anchored there. The water is beautiful around this island but the
land is sand, cactus and dry shrubs. This is the kind of place that
one keeps a sharp watch for rattle snakes when hiking around. So far
there has been no repeat of the sea life that I saw last night. Mind
you something has been rattling the anchor chain. I would expect that
to be the dolphins that I saw coming into the bay before dark.
April 25, 2012
Well this morning I climbed up the hill and as expected no Banda Ancha
or cell phone reception. Great spot to take photos from though and a
fantastic view. The no reception is interesting because I can listen
to the net on VHF from 44 km away in La Paz. I did learn some things
on my walks around the island today. First most of the white sand
beaches end above the water line and then it becomes gravel. That
probably explains the very clear water in the bay. Secondly I have
decided that my worry about rattle snakes was unfounded. Even thought
the land around here is identical to Arizona desert it is an island.
So unless someone accidently or purposely brought them to the island
or some rattler decided to become a long distance salt water swimmer
they are most likely not here. I haven’t seen one at any rate. But I
do still watch for them when I walk. I will most likely spend at least
two more days here. Last forecast that I could get called for 20 –25
knot winds here for tomorrow. The winds today were very light and
from the southwest. I will wait for them to shift back to the
northwest. Those are the winds that I will need for a good sail back
to Mazatlan. I will watch the winds and decide whether or not I will
sail for Mazatlan from here or head back south to Bahia los Muetos and
sail across the sea from there. I am getting more used to being on my
own but it is more fun sharing places like this with someone else. I
don’t mind the sailing on my own. In fact when the weather really
gets bad I would rather be on my own. If at some point I really screw
up and have to pay the ultimate price I would rather pay it alone.
And I have never felt that I have needed someone to help me sail the
boat better. Other then I get pretty tired sometimes when I can’t get
the sleep I need. But when I get to where I am going it is nice to
have someone to share that experience with. I am not saying anything
negative about other solo sailors. I have nothing but respect for
these people because I have been there and done that. I am just
describing how I feel. In some ways I am a bit of a sentimental wimp.
April 26, 2012
Well today the winds were a little stronger from the NW and it was
cloudy. After breakfast this morning I rowed into shore again and
went for another hike through the hills. The hills are made up of a
lot of loose shale. You have to be careful on the slopes because it
would be really easy to start sliding. This could result in anything
from a loss of shin to sliding over a 100 ft. cliff down to the
seashore. I took some photos today of the terrain, a couple of
turkey vultures, and one of the little lizards that run around on the
ground. When I got back to the beach I went for a swim. I think that
the water is warming up. A little. The big 'around the island' race is
supposed to take place tomorrow. I imagine that is why more boats
than usual showed up in the bay today. When the winds shifted to the
NW last night I was glad that I was anchored close to the cliffs at
the NW end of the bay. I am not sure yet but if the weather is ok
when I get up Saturday I’ll most likely make the run back south to
Bahia Los Muertos. That gives me a shorter route across the Sea of
Cortez back to Mazatlan. It also gives me a more easterly course
across the sea which I hope will give me a better angle to the wind.
April 27, 2012
Well I wasn’t going to leave Isla San Francisco until tomorrow but
when I got up this morning the weather looked fine so after coffee I
hauled anchor and headed for Bahia Los Muertos. It is a long sail for
one day nearly 70 nm. I left sending my spot fix until I was about 5
nm away from the island so that Deanna would know that I was on the
move again. What I didn’t realize at that time is that I had
forgotten to send out my spot fix the night before so she was already
worried. The sail was not bad from Isla San Francisco until almost to
the south end of Isla Cerralvo. Because I knew that I had a long way
to go and that I had started a little late I chose the most direct
route. This took me on the outside of Islas Partida and Espiritu
Santo which was a little bumpy because the seas were still running
fairly high from the winds that had been blowing the day and night
before. My course then took me between Isla Cerralvo and the Baja.
The sailing guide had warned of the currents that could be running
through this channel. When I had gone north through the same channel
last week, it had been morning and there was very little wind. But I had
noticed that between the south end of the island and the coast where
the channel is the narrowest, about 5 nm, there was about a 2 nm wide
stretch where there was only 180 ft. of water. On either side of this
stretch the water averaged about 600 ft. Today however I was running
down wind with about 20 knots of wind behind me and about 6ft. waves
right on the stern. When I hit the shallower water the current seemed
to really pick up. The auto pilot couldn’t keep up and I had to hand
steer through this area. The auto pilot cannot anticipate which way
the boat is going to spin and by the time it reacts the boat is facing
back into the wind. What I am still trying to figure out is if this
is a wind current, and the wind was hitting the channel at the perfect
angle, why would the depth have so much effect on the currents speed.
Wind currents usually only effect surface water. Mind you this is also
the narrowest part of the channel so who knows. I guess that there
could also be a deeper current running through there that combines
with the wind current. Whatever causes it makes for an interesting
ride. After I got over the shallow stretch the auto pilot had no
problem keeping up. I arrived at the anchorage right at dark. About
a mile out I could see where the other boats were anchored so I didn’t
want to stop to lower my mainsail because I would lose track of them.
I find that when it first gets dark it is the worst time for seeing boats at anchor as people
don't turn on their anchor lights until later. Some people aren’t back on their boats
yet and others just haven’t thought to turn them on yet. That is one
reason that I like anchor lights that turn themselves on as it gets
dark. At any rate I came into the anchorage under mainsail and
dropped anchor. When you have enough room this is a very safe tactic.
I wound up having to switch on the deck light to take down the
mainsail but I was in.
When I phoned Deanna I was in trouble for not
sending a spot message the night before. Sometimes you cannot get
them to work, in very rough seas as it is very difficult for it to get a
fix on the satellites, and at other times one can just forget as I
did. When the person at home is used to receiving the canned message
saying that everything is fine every morning and evening and it
doesn’t come in they instantly think the worst. At any rate I’ll have
to come up with a better communications system. More money.
I made a late dinner and was in bed by 10:30.
April 28, 2012
Today I must admit that I slept in until 7:30. When I was sitting in
the cockpit having my coffee, most of the boats that are heading north
into the Sea of Cortez, left. There are now only three of us anchored
here. I then put more money on my Banda Ancha. This allowed me to
get onto the internet to check the weather but it has been very
overcast so I can’t get a strong enough signal to use my email. I
then replaced some stripped bolts on the windlass, topped up the
fuel, checked the batteries for water, checked the engine oil and
the stuffing box. I am ready to head out on the 190 nm sail across
the sea to Mazatlan tomorrow morning.
NOTE from Deanna
Bob arrived in Mazatlan yesterday afternoon but was unable to enter the marina until today. The winds had created enough wave action so the channel into the marina had been closed. Today Bob is enjoying hot showers and restaurant food!!
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